Rechargeable lithium batteries, recently under extensive development and research, exhibit battery characteristics, such as charge-discharge voltage, charge-discharge cycle life characteristics and storage characteristics, which depend largely upon the types of the electrodes used. This has led to the various attempts to better battery characteristics by improving active electrode materials.
The use of metallic lithium as the negative active material enables construction of batteries which exhibit high energy densities, both gravimetric and volumetric. However, the lithium deposited on charge grows into dendrites, which could cause problematic internal short-circuiting.
On the other hand, rechargeable lithium batteries are reported using an electrode composed of aluminum, silicon, tin or the like which alloys electrochemically with lithium during charge (Solid State Ionics, 113–115, p57 (1998)).
However, such lithium-alloying materials when used as the negative electrode material undergo large volumetric expansion and shrinkage as they store and release lithium. The subsequent pulverization and separation thereof from the current collector makes it difficult to obtain satisfactory charge-discharge cycle characteristics, which has been a problem.